Painting Flowers

"A prom," I said flatly as I glared at one of the stupid posters that had been put up during the lessons. They were pink and covered in hearts, explaining that there would be a prom help in hall in two weeks' time for all high schoolers. "A fucking prom. Really?"

"Oh my god, I'm gonna shoot someone," Rian hissed from beside me, shaking his head and rubbing up and down the side of his face with his hand. "Proms are the worst, I swear to god. It's always just a stupid competition to see which girl can show their body off the most without being thrown out. And it's so damn expensive too, like, $100 dollars for a suit you're gonna wear once? Fuckin' insane. But Cass'll probably want to go, she loves stuff like that..."

"I've not got a girlfriend so I won't have to go," I said, smirking. "Ha. The perks of being single, my good friend."

"Looks like you won't be single for much longer, though," Rian said, and I raised an eyebrow at him. "Those girls over there've been staring at you." He stepped backwards and pointed to two girls leaning against the lockers and speaking in hushed whispers. They saw me looking at them and burst into giggles, before walking away and bowing their heads together to talk about something. However, my mind was suddenly sidetracked as Alex shoved past the two girls, his hands filled with textbooks and a calculator.

He looked up, and his eyes caught mine. I'd missed them, more than I'd realised, even though they were filled with anger and sadness and just hurt as we stared at each other for a moment. I watched as he shook his head and dived under his fringe again, turning right past me and walking in the opposite direction, totally blanking me whilst I nibbled on my lower lip in thought.

"Ew, Gaykarth," Rian called, and laughed at himself afterward. I smiled weakly, my stomach twisting as I watched Alex hunch his shoulders and try and ignore the few sneers he received. He didn't deserve any of that. "He's a douche. He always expects everyone to pitt him, but, like, news flash? Nobody cares! Anyway, you should so ask one of those girls out, both of them were checking you out." The bell went from somewhere above me, and so I slung my bag over my shoulder a little more, following Rian as we made our way to Biology.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe." Suddenly, the thoughts of Alex and the prom collided, and I imagined going with him. Well, we'd already made out on top of some stranger's bed, so going to prom together wouldn't be too bad in comparison...

'But I don't like Alex. I don't want to go to prom with him. I'm thinking too much,' I thought. 'Ask one of those girls out, it'll take your mind off things.'

"Actually, no, I'll ask them. One of them, at least," I said, nodding as we turned into Biology. I ignored Alex again, and it didn't hurt as much this time. "Which one do you think was hotter?"

"I dunno, the blonde one looked really hot," Rian laughed, walking towards our table up the back. "But brunettes are more fiesty, y'know? Damn, I shouldn't be saying this; Cass would kill me if she heard me right now. But I don't know, I guess it's up to you."

I shrugged. And although I hated to admit it, I knew the only person that I really wanted to go to prom with was my best friend.

*

When the bell for lunch went, Rian and Vinny ushered me over to the girls' table in the canteen. I gulped as I saw the dozen of them, sitting on the plastic chairs and animatedly chatting about something and giggling. Vinny shoved me forwards, a sly grin on his face, and I stumbled in front of them all, blood rushing to my cheeks as they all stared up at me.

I recognised the blonde girl who Rian said was checking me out earlier, and I smiled nervously at her. She smiled back, twisting her hair through her fingers. "Hey, Jack," she said sweetly, and I wondered for a moment how she knew my name. "How're you?"

"Uh, I'm good," I shrugged, feeling so embarrassed and awkward whilst the rest of her friends stared up at me. "How are you? Can I talk to you for a minute outside?"

"I'm great, and sure," she grinned, showing a set of straight white teeth. She stood up, excusing herself from her friends, and pulled me outside by my wrist. She led me to a quiet corridor, where she eventually stopped and lay against the wall, tilting her head and smirking at me.

"Hi," I said. "Um... God, I don't know your name..." I drifted off, laughing awkwardly, but the girl just grinned and shook her head whilst I was mentally kicking herself.

"Jenna McDougall," she said, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "So, uh, was there a reason you called me out of my lunch?"

I gulped. "Y- yeah, actually, um... Sorry about that, uh, I was kind of wondering if you wanted to go to that prom thing with me? Y'know, in a few weeks?"

Jenna grinned at me again, her pink lips stretching into a wide smile which weirdly relaxed me. "Sure thing, I'd be delighted to." Suddenly, she stood up on her tip toes and pressed her lips against mine, her soft arms wrapping around my neck and tilting her head into mine. I could tell she'd done this before. I tried my best to kiss her back, but seeing as my only recent experience was with Alex when I was totally drunk, I was positive that I wasn't very good in comparison to her.

When Jenna pulled away, she fluttered her eyelashes and smirked up at me. "I, er, noticed you were wearing a New Found Glory shirt today," she said, her eyes flickering down to my chest. "I like quite a few of their songs, you know."

My eyes widened at the fact that this pretty popular girl liked punk rock bands. Or maybe she was just pretending. But I didn't question what Jenna was saying, because she was hot and I was /me/, and I was lucky to be even talking to her. "Really? That's cool. I can, um, give you a borrow of one of their CDs that I have, if you'd like...?"

"Yeah, that would be lovely," Jenna said quietly, leaning her lips up and kissing me softly again. "I was hoping you'd ask me, Jack. But I bet Katrina'll be angry you picked me over her."

"I just asked you out 'cause you looked really pretty," I said, and grinned when Jenna giggled and blushed, staring down at her shoes. "Honest."

"You're so nice, Jack," she sighed, smiling widely up at me. "I'll love going to prom with you."

"And the same to you," I said, nodding. Although that wasn't completely true; I was only asking out Jenna to try and ignore the fact that I liked Alex. I hated to admit it, and I felt like such a weirdo for having a crush on my best friend (were we still best friends? Probably not...) but I just couldn't stop myself from staring at him whenever I saw him. His eyes, his hair, his laugh. All those little things made me go somewhat insane. And it didn't help that I'd kissed him before but not remembered it, because I couldn't think of the way his lips were against mine, or the way our bare chests were pressed so tightly together whilst we slept, or the way Alex was moaning and tugging on my hair whilst I was grinding against him, and god, I just wanted to go back to that moment (sober this time) and fuck him on that bed.

Woah.

I gulped, scratching my neck awkwardly as my eyes refocused on Jenna, who was looking a little confused and scared. Just how I was feeling for saying that I wanted to fuck Alex.

'Well, it's true,' I thought to myself, and I frowned. 'You know it's true.'

And yeah.

It kind of was.